Mock draft 2026

[The_Jamal]

This is kind of my understanding of the modern vernacular. A wing is basically part of the modern 5 out systems and is not a PG or C. But the best teams have an old school "4" who is adapted to the modern game, and that is a "big wing". These players are unguardable by SG and SF sized wings.

Am I right or wrong? Don't know.

This is right. Had a buddy who did some data work for the Mavs back in the day. He says teams haven't used traditional "1-5" terminology for awhile. It's ball-handler/big/wing.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Me personally @QWERTYLICIOUS, I would take Philon over all of them. There are certain things I look for in a lead guard and he checks every box. His handle and first step allow him to get wherever he wants and when he gets there he's got his head up looking to make a pass but can also take the bump and finish. The shooting is good enough as is the defense, most of the time. He has some pretty bad lapses occasionally but nearly everyone does at this level. Bottom line though, I don't see a ton of separation between the top guards so it's more about style of play than talent for me.

I've already blown a lot of hot air over Peterson and I don't want to rehash all of it. He's looked to me at points this season like he will struggle to finish over NBA defenders though how much of that is due to his nagging lower body injuries limiting his natural bounce is an open question. I don't watch a lot of HS basketball anymore so I can't speak to how he looked pre-injury. After starting the year exceptionally hot from deep (and carefully picking and choosing when to play) he's now cooled off with more reps to the point where Wagler, Acuff, and Philon are all shooting a better percentage on threes than he is. But mostly it's his Assist to Turnover ratio which is a big problem for me. It puts him squarely in SG-only territory and maybe also volume-scorer which is not a player type that I love. I have him ranked 5th.

Aside from the concerns about Peterson's availability, I really only watched the last game vs. Arizona and while he put up a huge stat line that game was never even close. It was a revenge game for Arizona of sorts since a short manned Wildcats team dropped their first of the season to Kansas. Everyone was raving about him after that game and it was a head scratcher to me to be celebrating his performance after his team lost by 23 and were functionally never in the game.

yes, I realize that is not a good sample size to judge him on.